Gaddafi deal 'will cover Lockerbie bomber'
By Auslan Cramb 09/06/2007
Downing Street's claim that a prisoner exchange agreement with Libya did not cover the Lockerbie bomber was dimissed as "ludicrous" yesterday by the Scottish Executive.
Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, poured scorn on Westminster's insistence that the "memorandum of understanding" signed by Tony Blair and Col Gaddafi in Libya did not apply to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.
The issue is at the centre of the first major constitutional row between Holyrood and Westminster since the Scottish National Party won the Scottish elections last month.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister, has protested to the Prime Minister over the agreement, which he claims could lead to Megrahi being transferred from Scotland to his homeland.
The Libyan secret service agent was found guilty in 2001 of murdering 270 people in 1988 by smuggling a suitcase containing a bomb on to PanAm Flight 103.
All 259 passengers and crew died, and 11 Lockerbie residents were killed as wreckage rained on the town.
Megrahi, who says he is innocent, is serving a minimum of 27 years in Greenock prison and Scottish ministers have always insisted that he must complete his sentence in Scotland.
Mr MacAskill said that Mr Blair's handling of the affair, without the knowledge of the Scottish administration, was "at minimum, discourteous to the First Minister and the Scottish Parliament".
He added: "There's no mention of Megrahi (in the memorandum) but while we have many people in our prisons. . . we have only one Libyan national in our prisons.
"So when we're talking about the transfer of Libyan prisoners they are not secreted in Barlinnie, Saughton, Perth or anywhere else.
"We have only one Libyan national in custody and when we talk about the transfer of prisoners, frankly it is ludicrous to suggest that we are talking in a context other than this major atrocity that was perpetrated on Scottish soil and which was dealt with by a Scottish court and with a sentence provided by Scottish judges."
Annabel Goldie, leader of the Scottish Tories, said the affair demonstrated that the machinery governing the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster must be reviewed.
However, Downing Street continued to claim that the agreement, signed last week during Mr Blair's trip to Libya, did not include Megrahi.
A spokesman said: "It is absolutely incorrect to say a deal has been done. All that the memorandum of understanding says is that we will have further talks about these matters - civil and commercial law, extradition arrangements, prisoner transfer. It concludes absolutely no specific deals.
"We don't regard it as covering Megrahi, and we made this very clear during the talks in Libya.
"Even if we did reach some future hypothetical point where a prisoner would be transferred, that would rightly be a devolved matter to be considered by relevant Scottish authorities."
Eddie Barnes - Scotland on Sunday 10th
June 2007
The biggest constitutional row since devolution has been blamed on the British love of bank holidays, it emerged last night.
In a farcical twist to 'Gaddafigate' worthy of Yes, Prime Minister, it has been claimed Scotland was not informed of Tony Blair's plans to broker a deal on prisoner transfers from Libya because all civil servants north of the Border were enjoying a day off.
Senior Whitehall sources claim that officials from the new Ministry of Justice in London did call civil servants in Scotland prior to Blair's trip to Libya last month. But as the day that they rang, Friday, May 25, was an official public holiday in Scotland, the entire Scottish Executive was shut down, and nobody picked up the phone.
Last week, the failure to make contact led to fury in the Scottish Parliament, as party leaders accused Tony Blair of plotting a secret deal to repatriate the Lockerbie bomber.
First Minister Alex Salmond said that as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was in a Scottish jail, ministers should have been told of the ongoing negotiations.
According to the Whitehall insiders, the 'cock-up' began after the basis for the Memorandum of Understanding was agreed on Wednesday, May 23, in a meeting in London between the Libyan justice minister and his Whitehall counterparts. Officials rang Scotland on Friday, May 25 to let them know, only to discover it was a Scottish holiday.
The next working day, Monday, was an English Bank Holiday, meaning that all of Whitehall was at home. When both sets of officials were back in, on Tuesday, Blair was already in Libya to meet Gaddafi.
A senior Scotland Office source said: "The phone call was made by officials from the Ministry of Justice on Friday, May 25. But the person who was supposed to take the call was on holiday. It was as simple as that."
The claims were met with derision by Scottish Executive sources, who said the bungled attempts to get in touch simply demonstrated the UK government's "amateurish" approach to the affair.
A source close to Salmond said: "I am afraid the more Downing Street spins, the worse it gets. It's a case of, 'oh what a tangled web we weave'. First they said the memorandum was a draft, that it wasn't signed, that it had nothing to do with prisoner transfer and Mr Megrahi - and now this."
The First Minister made an emergency statement to Parliament last week on the issue.
The UK government's embarrassment increased last night after it emerged that, while Scotland was out of the loop, officials in the European Commission were aware of the deal.
• Kirsty Wark has apologised to Salmond, over her Newsnight interview with him on the Libyan prisoner row.
The BBC presenter contacted the SNP leader on Friday to say sorry for the "abrupt" way the programme had ended.
See also
Salmond raises Lockerbie concern
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